The administration of the Quincy Housing Authority is in limbo after the retirement of the authority’s director and a prolonged state review of the contract offered to his replacement.

Joseph MacRitchie, the authority’s eight-year director and a longtime city employee, filed retirement papers March 28 and worked his last day Friday. The housing authority’s board voted April 17 to offer the job to James Lydon, a former Quincy planning director.

Since then, the state Department of Housing and Community Development has been studying the contract offer and has offered no timetable for a decision.

“It’s currently under review,” agency spokesman Matthew Sheaff said Tuesday. “Once we’ve completed the review, we’ll be back in touch with the housing authority.”

The agency reviews all contract offers to housing authority directors because it is a signatory to them.

Assistant Director Robert Quinn is serving as the Quincy Housing Authority’s interim director while Lydon’s offer is being reviewed.

“We have an agreement, and DHCD has asked for clarification on this issue and that issue, and that’s currently where we stand,” Lydon said in the telephone interview Tuesday. “I thought DHCD would have approved it as of the end of last week, but we continue to provide them with information and answer questions that they have.”

The authority board’s vice chairman, Leo Kelly, said the authority expected to have a new director working by now.

“It’s really not a good situation,” he said. “That permanency isn’t there. We’d like to get started with some things.”

Lydon said the state has been “extra cautious” in its reviews of such contracts since the former director of the Chelsea Housing Authority, Michael McLaughlin, resigned after it was revealed he was pulling a $300,000 salary. McLaughlin pleaded guilty in February to deliberately hiding his salary from regulators.

The state undertakes a more intensive review if an offer is made to a candidate who does not have previous housing authority experience, as Lydon doesn’t and MacRitchie didn’t.

Lydon is currently a senior vice president at MassDevelopment. He said he managed properties such as the Charlestown Navy Yard during his time as the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s economic development director. Lydon was Quincy’s planning director from 1976 to 1985.

MacRitchie, 61, who earned $116,368 as director, filed for retirement a month after the release of a state audit that showed public housing units in Quincy sat vacant for weeks longer than the state-mandated 21 days despite lengthy waiting lists. MacRitchie said the numbers in the report were faulty. He could not be reached for comment for this story.

Authority board member Rosemary Wahlberg said the board hired a consultant to run the hiring process and “had a lot of applicants for the position.”

Page 2 of 2 - The state “has some questions about the contact that was signed,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a major issue.”

The housing authority board is made up of one state appointee (Wahlberg ) and four mayoral appointees (Kelly, Thomas Lynn, Mary Ann Morris and Thomas McGrath).